Study: Fed worker happiness drops

Job satisfaction among federal government workers dropped sharply in 2012, according to a new study out Thursday that ranked the best and worst places to work in the federal government.

A report from the Partnership for Public Service and Deloitte found that employee satisfaction among those who work for the federal government dropped, overall, by the largest margin since the survey first began in 2003. On a scale of 100, the overall satisfaction score among those surveyed for 2012 was 60.8, a 3.2 drop from the previous year.

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“Our nation’s public servants have sent a clear signal that all is not well,” said Max Stier, the Partnership for Public Service president and CEO, in a statement. “The two year pay freeze, budget cuts and ad hoc hiring freezes are taking their toll – and this is a red flag.”

But there are still some bright spots in the government workforce, according to the report from this nonprofit, nonpartisan group. Here’s a look at where to work — and what to skip — in Washington, based on categories including leadership, pay, work/life balance and how well employee skills match up with the mission at hand.

BEST PLACES TO WORK IN THE FEDERAL GOV’T:

Large agencies:

The intelligence community: This field earned the second-highest overall rank among best large agencies at which to work, but respondents said they found the best pay and work/life balance here.

NASA: Respondents named the National Aeronautics and Space Administration the best overall large agency at which to work, citing effective leadership, strategic management, teamwork and satisfaction with the match between employee skills and the mission of the agency.

Also earning high marks among large agencies: Department of State, Department of Commerce, the Environmental Protection Agency.

Mid-sized agencies:

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation: The FDIC outpaces other agencies in this category by every measure except work-life balance, where the organization came in second to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Other mid-sized agencies with high scores: the Government Accountability Office, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Smithsonian Institution.

Small agencies:

The Surface Transportation Board, the Congressional Budget Office, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and the Peace Corps all clocked in with similarly high overall scores.

WORST PLACES TO WORK IN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT:

Large agencies:

The Department of Homeland Securityhad an overall score that was significantly lower than the next-lowest score, the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Mid-sized agencies:

The National Archives and Records Administration and the Broadcasting Board of Governors had overall scores about 36 points below the top-rated agencies.

Small agencies:

The Federal Maritime Commission and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative got slammed in the survey, with satisfaction rates at about half of what the best-ranked agencies in this category earned.

Rankings were determined by responses from about 700,000 federal workers, according to the Partnership for Public Service.

Suck it up buttercups. Poor things I tell ya. Why only 700,000 Fed Employees polled? Couldn't get to them all? 700k and we only have 50 states some that don't even have around 700k people living in them!

Jack Cafferty on CNN reported a year ago that there are more than 150,000 federal civilian employees who make over $100,000 per year. No wonder Washington DC has the highest per capita income of any metro area in the US.

I remember during the Monica Lewinsky deal, Linda Tripp the woman who promoted the whole business, was employed by the pentagon, doing some mundane clerical job which would probably bring in $30,000 per year in Peoria or Indianapolis.

The Department of Homeland Security had an overall score that was significantly lower than the next-lowest score, the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Doesn't surprise me considering the moron they have heading the agency. Not to mention that the members I've had to interact with have been, at best, an average experience. If I treated any of my customers in my current job with even a quarter of the avarice airport security treats pretty much everyone, I would be fired as many times as possible.

As a previous member of the military, I can say I pretty much don't care how happy anyone working in a government agency feels. Most have gotten to the point where bureaucratic processes make up entire jobs just to manage. I can remember several times in 'top down' discussions with either my bosses or with members of departments outside of the DoD the visceral need to maintain authority, at the cost of both efficiency and the cost of integration of better ideas. The behemoth that is government has turned into the lowest bar of human behaviour that I can imagine in a professional work environment.

Ironic, since agencies reflect so many of the tenants of socialistic philosophy.

After the big build-up of government jobs over decades under Republicans, not Democrats, through GW Bush who created the bloated, dysfunctional Homeland Security Agency, and created over a million top-secret and security jobs in both the federal and private sectors, jobs under Pres. Obama have gone down with over 100,000 fed jobs lost.

As government employees, particularly congressmen and department heads and staff have learned they can become corporate lobbyists and business reps or go over to the well-funded, right-wing think tanks, drug makers, energy and chemical companies, and defense contractors and acquire huge salaries using their inside-the-beltway influence and contacts to make themselves rich while promoting often agendas benefitting groups and corporations at the expense of working class Americans or America as a whole.

Compare private sector salaries are usually higher for professionals where the average annual income for a Fortune 500 CEO is $10.6 million or 350 times the average worker and more than all the union leadership top to bottom nationwide. The average salary on Wall St. is $350,000 per year. The average salary for a US physician specialist is $175,000 per year and a surgeon makes $272,000--the highest in the world though the US is ranked 30th in healthcare globally by the World Healthcare Organization.